7th Annual Blackett Science Lecture

Professor Mike Edmunds, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics at Cardiff University and Chair of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project gave an inspiring lecture on the amazing Antikythera Mechanism to a large audience of pupils and Friends of the Marlborough telescope. The bronze mechanism, discovered over 100 years ago by divers in the Mediterranean, dates back some 2100 years and with some 30 individual gear wheels is recognised as not only unique but the most sophisticated mechanism to come out of the ancient world and in complexity appears unsurpassed for at least another millennium. The talk covering aspects of engineering design, imaging, astronomical cycles, Greek writing and classical civilisation left many questions unanswered and shed a new light on the extent of Classical technology.